Charlotte M. Blake was born in Franklin County, Ohio, to Edward C. Blake and Caroline P. Graves, both natives of the state, within a year of the couple's marriage. She was the oldest of six siblings, including Harry Franklin (8/31/1887), Marguerite L. (3/1891), Fenimore Cooper (4/24/1893), Benjamin S. (5/26/1895-3/26/1907), Laura J. (9/1898) and Martha V. (1903). Benjamin did not survive to adulthood. The family appears in the June 1900 enumeration living in Grove City Village, a suburb of Jackson, Ohio, located near Columbus. Edward was listed as a "commercial traveler." However, they had moved to Michigan, where Martha was born, by 1903.

Charlotte started her professional musical career in 1903 at age 18, working initially as a clerk, then later as a staff writer, arranger and music demonstrator for Whitney Warner Publishing in Detroit, Michigan, which would soon be folded into the firm of publishing giant Jerome H. Remick. She turned out to be a fairly prolific composer for the publisher turning out a reported 35 titles, many of them marches and waltzes. This was done initially without recognition of her gender to the general public. Even Detroit city directories of that time show Charlotte's occupation as merely "clerk" or "pianist."

Early acknowledgments in publicity, trade magazines, and on sheet music covers, although generous in their prominence, listed her as C. Blake until she was 21. It was then that her full name was revealed on her music and in ad copy from Remick that read as follows:

A typical announcement from 1907 read: "Jerome H. Remick & Co., music publishers, are exploiting a new march two-step, "Curly," written by Miss Charlotte Blake. The piece has just come off the press." Also that same year, the Chicago Tribune gave Charlotte and other female composers their due in an article printed on November 17, 1907, but it was also highly indicative of the contemporary roles and expectations of the sexes in general:

As stated above despite the alleged handicaps that her gender reportedly served her, and her obvious talent at composing songs and waltzes, Charlotte showed a propensity for syncopated ragtime as well. She composed her two most famous rags, Gravel Rag and That Poker Rag, in 1908 and 1909 respectively. In the 1910 census Blake is listed as a music composer, but still residing with her family in Detroit City. Her father was now in the wholesale fur trade as E.C. Blake & Company, "Dealers in Raw and Dressed Furs."

Around 1911 Blake wrote her last rag, followed by a series of songs and waltzes over the next several years. That Tired Rag elicited the following review in the American Musician and Art Journal:

One of her best sellers was the romantic song The Harbor of Love. Published music by Blake ceased nearly altogether by 1916, when she had evidently retired from composing. One more song reportedly appeared in 1919, although it is hard to verify Honey, When It's Money.

The disappearance from the music business may have had something to do with a marriage that until now has not been indicated in sources with any information on Charlotte. During a stay in Manhattan, New York, she was married to Kenneth Bruce Wainman on October 28, 1912. Born in New York from Canadian parents, the 1910 census showed him to be a piano store salesman living in Rochester, New York. It appears that the couple resided in New York City for a few years. In 1917, Bruce enlisted in the new Army Air Corp, serving overseas from August of that year to April of 1919. Little more information was found on Bruce beyond that, but this may be the period of time during which they split up. Bruce would remarry in Indiana in 1924, and again in California in 1935, dying in Los Angeles in 1937.

Charlotte cannot be readily located in the 1920 census under either last name. Her mother Caroline, now widowed, had moved to Buffalo, NY, to live with Charlotte's sister Laura by the time of the 1920 record, but was back in Detroit before 1930. She and Charlotte shared an apartment in that city at a couple of locations between 1930 and 1932. Her status in 1930 showed her as divorced and living with her Caroline, and her last name still as Wainman. She soon took back her maiden name. Caroline died in the early 1930s, and before 1935 (assuming she gave the 1940 enumerator the correct information) Charlotte had relocated to Hollywood, California. She was found there for the 1940 census living in an apartment at 1736 North Orange Drive just north of Hollywood Blvd with no occupation listed. The California voter records for 1940, 1942 and 1944 generically listed her as a housewife.

Likely beginning after America entered World War II, Charlotte worked for some 20 years at Douglas Aircraft Corporation as a clerk. Just the same, the 1950 census found her living with "partner" and fellow divorcée Kathrine Eagle, neither of them showing an occupation. Remaining in Hollywood until at least the 1950s, she eventually relocated west to nearby Santa Monica. After retirement Charlotte stayed in Santa Monica until her death in 1979 at age 94, and her status on the death certificate also indicates that she was divorced, most likely the same event from the early 1920s.

Charlotte Blake's rags demonstrate a direct and studied approach to composition, making certain that the individual components fit together, and they show inherent cleverness and a sense of humor as well. That Poker Rag and That Tired Rag in particular demonstrate her talents with both melody and cohesive continuity. She also wrote many songs while in the employ of Remick, though they have been mostly forgotten. Charlotte was mostly forgotten until the mid-1970s when performer Max Morath recorded his legendary The Ragtime Women album, giving That Poker Rag new exposure, and revealing to the ragtime revival consumers the talents of many women composers, especially Ms. Blake and her peers from the Midwest. In the 21st century select works of hers are performed often at festivals an on recordings.